


Earth Angel

by t_fic (topaz), topaz, topaz119 (topaz)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Comment Fic, Gen, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-12
Updated: 2010-05-12
Packaged: 2017-10-28 22:44:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/312990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/topaz/pseuds/t_fic, https://archiveofourown.org/users/topaz/pseuds/topaz, https://archiveofourown.org/users/topaz/pseuds/topaz119
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for the (pre-S5 finale) <a href="">CuddleCommentFic Meme</a>, for the prompt <a href="">Gabriel comes back from the dead and Sam doesn't ever want to let him go.</a> um, it's not *quite* that, but there is cuddling.</p><p>Completely non-canon now, but we still love Gabriel, right?</p>
    </blockquote>





	Earth Angel

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the (pre-S5 finale) [CuddleCommentFic Meme](), for the prompt [Gabriel comes back from the dead and Sam doesn't ever want to let him go.]() um, it's not *quite* that, but there is cuddling.
> 
> Completely non-canon now, but we still love Gabriel, right?

In the half-second between Lucifer letting him go and the first of the shock waves from Michael and Lucifer finally taking each other on in their own true forms hitting him, Sam was certain that he saw Dean, and that Dean saw him. He was less certain about the flicker he caught out of the corner of his eye, but he thought it might be Castiel, the awesome span of his wings reaching out to shield Dean. But it wasn't anything but a flash of movement, happening no more than a split-second before he was slammed back and into a wall, so Sam wasn't sure if he wasn't just seeing what he desperately wanted to see.

The second shock wave picked him up and punched him through a window; he felt the glass shatter against his shoulders as he blew through it right before his head slammed into part of the frame. He knew his back was getting cut up pretty bad, but it was far away and distant, as though it was happening to someone else, the same as how he knew he probably wasn't going to make it through the third wave. He fought to stand, though; some stubborn need to go down fighting pulling him up even though he knew it was useless. He caught that flicker again, out of the corner of his eye, but before he could look properly, the leading edge of the third wave caught him head-on, the sheer force of it snapping his head back, all but tearing it right off. He had enough time to think that it wasn't quite the same as what he'd seen earlier but then all of Michael and Lucifer screaming at each other hit him and he blacked out.

It was quiet when he woke, dim and shadowed, and he had that creepy feeling of someone watching him crawling up his spine but it took him what felt like forever to turn his head and look. Then he had to blink a couple of times, and try to focus again, because Gabriel was sitting next to him, legs criss-crossed and elbows braced on his knees.

"Yo," Gabriel said, and even if it was just Sam's imagination, he hadn't lost the smirk, not one bit. "Rise and shine, Sammy-Boy."

"You--" Sam started, his voice scraping raw and hoarse over his throat and his brain caught up with him and seriously, if he was dead--because Gabriel was dead and why else would he be hanging around watching Sam if Sam wasn't dead, too--he really wasn't happy that he still hurt like a motherfucker. "Am I--"

"Dead? Gone? Shuffled off the old mortal coil?" Gabriel arched one eyebrow. "No such luck, sweet pea." He sat up straight, rolling his shoulders back, and there was a whisper of feathers and everything got bright and clear. "Check it out--the world's still here and you're still in it."

Sam turned his head the other way and there was blue sky around the edges of the bombed-out warehouse and for a second, he thought he heard birds. "Dean?" he asked, not looking back, as though not seeing Gabriel's face if it was bad news was going to make it easier to deal.

"Bitching about something, I'm sure," Gabriel said, and the fist around Sam's heart loosened. "Unless all this--" he stopped and waved one hand at the flattened landscape-- "has gotten Castiel to finally loosen up enough to quit with the eye-fucking and get on with the real deal."

Sam didn't think it was likely, but he had better things to do than defend Dean's virtue, like getting to him and making sure Gabriel was right. Gritting his teeth, he slowly pushed up to his knees and ended up staying there for a while, until the head rush settled down.

"This would be the point where I mention that you literally cut your back to ribbons and even with all that taken care of, you might want to take it easy for a little while," Gabriel said conversationally. "Big Brother can wait another minute or two."

"Aren't you supposed to be dead?" Sam panted, while he worked on getting his feet under him and willed his legs not to turn to mush.

"What can I tell you?" Gabriel said, bouncing to his feet; and Sam didn't know how he did it, but he even made that be smug. "Can't keep a good man down--isn't that how the song goes?"

"Man?" Sam said through gritted teeth, moving slowly, cautiously until he was standing for real. "And really? You listen to Alabama?"

His head was still spinning, but he thought it might be getting better, so he took a step and promptly pitched forward. He would have landed flat on his face, but Gabriel had been moving at the same time and was there to catch him.

"Please," Gabriel snorted, holding Sam as easily as if he'd been a baby. "There's no need to insult my taste in music just because you've gone deaf from years of your brother's cassettes."

Sam thought about moving, but Gabriel wasn't shoving him off and he wasn't at all sure that he wasn't going to faceplant again, so he stayed right where he was and concentrated on breathing while Gabriel kept talking.

"--it gets used a lot--Lil Rob, Newsong, Jimmy Cliff, but I've always gone for the classics, so let's leave it with the Bee Gees."

"Only if you don't start singing," Sam said, trying to disentangle himself to try standing up again. Gabriel had other ideas.

"If I promise to take you to him, will you stop with the thinking-you-can-walk stupidity?" Gabriel tried to sound put upon, but Sam thought he might be a little more worn out than he was letting on, because there wasn't nearly as much snark as there could have been. Sam nodded and closed his eyes and Gabriel shifted him just enough to touch two fingers to his forehead.

"Sammy!"

Sam fought back the nausea and opened his eyes just in time to stumble away from Gabriel and into Dean, who was doing the same thing with Castiel.

"You look like shit," he told his brother, even as he latched on and wouldn't let go. Dean did, too--so pale Sam thought he could count every freckle and filthy enough that Sam thought he might have gone swimming in mud, but he was alive and so was Sam and neither one of them had thought that had even a possibility of happening.

"Ditto," Dean croaked, holding on to Sam just as hard.

"Gabriel," Castiel said, quietly. "Brother." Sam lifted his head at the joy and wonder in Castiel's voice, in time to see him--well, not glow, but somehow there was more light than even the sun was giving off, and Sam could almost feel Gabriel answering in the same way behind him.

"Back in action, little brother. Bigger, badder and better than ever," Gabriel said, but in the same voice Dean used to use when Sam would fuss over him back when they were just kids, the one that said, yeah, it got a little hairy, but you don't think I'd really ever leave you, do you?. Dean must have heard it, too, because he looked up and aimed a smirk over Sam's shoulder, but before he could actually say anything, Sam's knees ran out of staying power. He sagged against Dean, who buckled under his full weight, but before they could hit the ground, Castiel and Gabriel grabbed for them.

"Easy there, big boy," Gabriel said, taking Sam's weight again as easily as he had the first time.

"Dean, you must not overtax yourself," Castiel was saying at the same time, and they all ended up on the ground, Sam and Dean next to each other, with Gabriel and Castiel behind them, more or less holding them up. Dean seemed to be okay with that, what with how he was sprawled back on Castiel--Sam had given up trying to figure out what the deal was between Dean and Castiel--but Sam wasn't nearly as sure about Gabriel. He held himself stiffly, willing his body to find the energy to keep upright.

"If I were the sensitive type, I'd be wiping a single, perfect tear off my face at how you don't want to be near me," Gabriel murmured from behind Sam.

"Then I guess it's a good thing you're not," Sam hissed back. He took the hint, though and eased back a little. It still wasn't comfortable and he didn't know how long he could keep it up. "I'm fine."

"Of course you are," Gabriel drawled, tugging on Sam's shirt until he lost his balance and fell back against Gabriel. To be fair, it didn't take much. "My brother is known for how well he treats those who don't agree with him."

"You'd know that better than me," Sam said, and felt Gabriel shrug against him.

"Someone had better ideas," Gabriel answered. "I'm not particularly inclined to argue with them. Him." Sam agreed, and not just because Gabriel had apparently gotten to him just in time to shield him from the worst of the fallout.

The sun shone down, interrupted occasionally by fat, puffy clouds, the kind that kindergartners drew with their landscapes, and there were indeed birds singing. The temperature was perfect, the breeze just enough to cool them down, and if Sam kept his eyes up, off the blasted foreground, there were trees and grass and something blooming pink in the distance. Dean was alive and breathing next to him, batting Castiel's hands away every time Cas tried to get a better look at the ( _minor_ , Sam thought, and _thank youthankyouthankyou_ ) cuts and scrapes that dotted his arms. Gabriel was solid and strong behind him. Sam leaned back into Gabriel a little further and closed his eyes and let himself think that there might be a tomorrow.

"So, Gabe," Dean said, after a while, sounding relaxed and almost lazy, like Sam couldn't remember him being in years and years. "Thanks for diving in and saving Sam's ass there during the fireworks and all, but you wouldn't happen to have a line on a couple of cold ones, would you?"

"Dean," Sam said, without opening his eyes. "Did you just ask the Archangel Gabriel to make a beer run?"

"You see any other Gabes around here?" Dean still sounded lazy. "'Sides, I'm not dead and you're not dead and neither of the flyboys are either, right? Hell, Cas is even back on Team Wings. That calls for a celebration and I figure Loki's a better shot at knowing where to get the good stuff than Mr-I've-Gotten-Drunk-Once-In-My-Life here behind me."

Castiel huffed at that, but it was the most indulgent huff Sam had ever heard.

"How about a little mead?" Gabriel asked. "I can do that without getting up; I'm always about to drown in the stuff anyway."

"Works for me," Dean said. It was fine with Sam, too; and Cas, which was something of a surprise, given his last, first, and only spectacular bender. Gabriel shifted Sam, holding him up with one arm curved around his waist and waved with the other. Four earthenware flagons popped up and they sat and drank and watched the world--the beautiful, unperfect, messy world--until the sun went down and the stars rose above them.


End file.
